1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a fabrication line and process sequence for forming contact and interconnect metallization for solar cells, and solar cells formed by same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Solar cells are photovoltaic devices that convert sunlight directly into electrical power. The most common solar cell material is silicon, which is in the form of single or multicrystalline substrates, sometimes referred to as substrates. Because the amortized cost of forming silicon-based solar cells to generate electricity is higher than the cost of generating electricity using traditional methods, there has been an effort to reduce the cost required to form solar cells.
Conventional silicon solar cells, such as crystalline-silicon solar cells, use a metal based contact structure for the front-surface current collection and for the rear surface contacting areas. Contact resistivity between the metal contact structures and the substrate is always desired to be low so as to maintain good electrical performance of the solar cells. Improvements to the fabrication of the metal contact assist in reducing manufacturing costs.
Therefore, there exists a need for improved methods to form the metal contact structures and interconnect structures formed on a surface of a substrate to form a solar cell with desired electric performances as well as a low manufacture cost.